Fallyn chuckled lightly. “It’s the takeout. Go get it and bring it on up. I promise to still be just as naked then.”
“I’m holding you to that.” Vince jogged down the stairs and returned with the bag of takeout and a serving tray for them to eat on. He slid it all to the center of the bed, forgetting his appetite at the sight of her golden curves. “You think the food will keep until after?”
Fallyn grinned, sitting up and crossing her legs in full view of him as she opened the bag and took out the chicken fried rice she’d been missing. “Oh, this smells heavenly. First food, then we work it off the fun way.”
She unwrapped the chopsticks and shoved them into her container, taking three bites before she stopped to savor the taste of her first non-Italian meal in a month. The heavy greasy goodness filled her with happiness, but the chicken tasted off. The more she chewed, the stranger it tasted, until she was eating around the chunks. Vince was telling her about problems he’d been having with one of his store managers when the Fallyn’s stomach decided the chicken was persona non grata.
“I’ll be right back,” she told him, cutting him off midsentence. She ran into the cream and peach colored bathroom, wishing she was in her own house, so Vince would not hear her getting sick. Vince’s maid kept a pristine house, down to the perfectly straight pictures of Italy that were hung on the bathroom wall like a threat for newcomers to keep their paws off the furniture.
Fallyn was halfway through vomiting up her meal when Vince meandered into the bathroom, confused at her sudden departure. “Oh, honey!” He ignored her pleas for him to leave her and made himself useful holding back her hair. He kept his hand on her back, rubbing in soothing circles while she threw up every last bit of Chinese food she’d just devoured, plus the meal she’d had on the plane. “What happened? You seemed fine, and now you’re sick. Were you feeling bad before and I just missed it?”
“Go out there. I’ll be done soon,” she croaked, slumped over the toilet after she’d flushed it for the third time.
“Not a chance. What can I do?”
“I don’t want you to see this. I’m disgusting!” Another wave hit her, and she sorely wished she was not naked. She waited for her stomach to stop roiling while Vince sang softly to her in Italian, calming her frazzled nerves. “Go back to the bedroom, Vince. I’m serious.”
“I’m serious,” he argued. His hands were gentle but his words were sharp. “When are you going to realize that we’re married? I’m your husband. I’m not going to leave my wife alone when she’s sick.” When Fallyn picked her head up, he handed her a tissue to wipe her face with and laid the back of his hand to her forehead. “You’re a little warm, but it’s not a full-on fever, I don’t think. What happened?”
“The chicken tasted funny in my fried rice. I tried to eat around it, but it still got me. It’s your fault. You spoiled me with all that handmade, fresh Italian food.” She made to slump against the wall, but Vince pulled her body to him. “You don’t want me near you. I’m gross.”
“Want me to draw you a bath?”
Fallyn sagged with relief and gratitude. “Really? Yes. That’d be great. I feel like plane and puke and nasty chicken. But you don’t have to wait on me like this.”
He kissed her hair and lowered her down to lay on the cool peach tile. Vince ran the bath, threw away the takeout, dug her toothbrush and an undershirt of his out of their luggage, and got her some mouthwash and a glass of water. He tried not to stare at her breasts that bounced from side to side as she brushed her teeth, and kept his hands off her perfect backside as he helped her into the tub. He grabbed the book she’d been reading off the nightstand that belonged to his father’s library downstairs and picked up reading to her where she’d left off before the honeymoon.
When the water started to get tepid, Fallyn couldn’t help the tears in her eyes as she marveled up at the man she loved. “I can’t believe I ever wasn’t married to you. This is you? This is what you’re really like?”
“This is what I’m like for you. I admit, I’ve never drawn Angelo a bath or held back his hair while he puked.”
Her knee poked through the surface of the water. “I have this image of you from when I was a kid. I was playing outside with Joey and Danny, and you came home with blood all over your hands. I mean, dripping all over. You were washing off in the hose on the side of the house, and you saw me watching you. Everyone was so scared of you, even back then.”
Vince studied her as she recalled the memory. “Were you scared of me?”
“Of course. You were the vicious D’Amato. I’d seen Kill, Finn, Keenan, Seamus and Declan come home like that a few times, and it always scared me.” She looked up at her husband with wonder. “You saw me watching you, and you told me you’d spilled ketchup all over yourself. I knew you were lying, not so you’d get away with whatever it was you’d done, but because you didn’t want to scare me.”
“You’re the one person I never want to make afraid of me,” he admitted, closing the dusty hardcover and setting it on the counter. “In fact, if I can make it so you live the rest of your life without fear at all, I’ll die happy knowing I did right by you.”
“I love you. Thanks for all this. I’m really fine. Just a little food poisoning.”
“I’ll have the chef fired in the morning.”
Fallyn’s eyes widened. “Vince, no. How about we just don’t throw your millions of dollars at his restaurant?”
“Our millions of dollars. We’re married,” he reminded her. “My money’s yours now, too.”
Fallyn felt strange about that point. She knew he was being logical, but she’d tried so hard to make sure she could stand on her own without her brothers. To have Vince swoop in and pay for things felt like cheating, and she didn’t want to be a burden on him.
When she stepped out of the tub, he dried her off and tugged his undershirt over her head. She grinned as she inhaled the fragrance of Vince, pressing the shirt to her nose. She could smell deeper now, picking up notes of cinnamon in his cologne and hints of jasmine in his deodorant. “You smell like a dream,” she commented, making her way to their bed. She pulled back the covers and slid under, content that no matter what happened, be it sickness or family strife, Vince would be there, holding back her hair and telling her the blood on his hands was nothing more than a little ketchup.
Twenty-Three.
Look Happy
Fallyn was nervous when her brother came out into the visitation room. She wanted to leap up and hug him, but knew touching would get him into trouble with the guards. Instead she mimed hugging him, and Keenan mimed putting her in a headlock and mussing her hair. He put on a forced impression of a smile and saluted Vince with two fingers, who returned the gesture from the brown plastic chair he was leaned back in. Vince had his negotiation face on, which meant he was stoic and waited to speak until the silence grew uncomfortable. “Good to see you, Vince. I hear you’re the luckiest man on the face of the planet these days.”
“I am. Fallyn’s been excited for us to meet up. How’re they treating you in there?”
“Oh, you know. Like a criminal.”
Vince nodded, his expression unreadable. “You take it, Fal.”
Fallyn’s fingers twisted in her lap as she tried to summon up the right words and the proper amount of cushioning for the blow. “So I haven’t been back to see you since our last visit because I’ve been away on vacation. The day after I saw you last, Vince and I decided to… Well, we sort of eloped.” She watched her brother’s face pale, making his light smattering of freckles across his nose stand out all the more. “So, not a vacation, I guess. I was on my honeymoon.”
Keenan hung his head, running his hand over his forehead and down past his mouth. “So when I told you to give the guys some time to come around, you heard ‘get married in twenty-four hours’. Am I getting that right? You’re married? Like, actually married?”
Vince held up his left hand to display his wedding band. “Just g
ot back last night and came straight to tell you this morning.”
Keenan let out a bitter laugh. “Well played, telling me first. I can’t beat on you. Killian’s been in here once a week to try and catch you on your next visit.” He raised his finger to Vince, meeting his eyes with a similarly cool sadism that Vince always had on standby. “Let’s get a few things straight. I don’t like you. I don’t care how much Fally says you’ve grown, or what good things Kill told me you were doing with your territory. The only thing I care about concerning you is her. You went under our noses and took the only thing precious to all of us. Just took her. And now what? You got her cut off from her family.”
Vince shrugged. “If she was that precious to you all, you wouldn’t have cut her off just for dating someone.”
Keenan’s face soured. “Don’t pretend like you know what it is to be an O’Keefe. You’ve never had a sister, so you can’t judge our reaction to what you’ve done.”
Vince took Keenan’s lecture in stride, waiting a few beats until speaking in a cool, calm voice. “Carrigan knew, and he jumped me. We wanted to tell them all when we first started dating, but they made it impossible. You know it’s not as simple as just coming clean with them. They want her in a nunnery. She was dating someone else when we first started it up, and they chased him away the first day they met him.” He leaned back and rested his arm on the back of Fallyn’s chair. “Now if it was as simple as letting them jump me, that would be one thing, but Carrigan only got angrier after I let him beat on me. There’s no easing them in. Bottom line? Us getting married without them isn’t on us. It’s on them, and you know it.”
“You ran off and got married. You have to know no one’s going to be okay with this.”
Fallyn pursed her lips before chiming in. “They’re not okay with anything involving me dating, so I wasn’t under any grand delusion that getting married would go over well. But I’m done waiting for you all to let me go. This was my call, and I stand by my choice. I love Vince.”
Keenan’s face twisted into a grimace. “Don’t say ‘I love Vince’ like that.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. It’s just about the strangest thing a girl could say.”
Fallyn’s eyes narrowed. “You can do better than this. Do better, or I’m walking out of here. I didn’t have to come, you know. I only showed because you said you’d be cool.”
“I didn’t know you would come back in a month married! Give a guy a second to catch up, Fal. This is a lot.” Keenan bit his lower lip as he visibly seethed, mentally talking himself down from lunging across the table to throttle the man who’d taken his sister’s virginity. He rubbed his temples to relieve the strain. “Sweetie, I love you, but this was a bad move.”
“It was my move to make, and I can live with the fallout. Vince is my husband, and we’re happy. You lot are the only unhappy things in my life, and I fought for you all for too long. Be glad I’m happy, even if you don’t like how I got there. Look at me, Keenan.” She waited for her brother to meet her gaze. “Don’t I look happy?”
Keenan’s shoulders drooped. “You do. I hate to admit it, but you do look content. Older, but in a good way.” His disheveled auburn waves were short, and the unruliness suited him perfectly. He looked lost, waiting for anyone to say something that could set all this right. “I would’ve liked to’ve seen you get married. I would’ve walked you down the aisle, even if Dad or Kill wouldn’t. I would’ve found a way to be there for you.”
Fallyn closed her eyes, emotion rising up inside her. “Thank you. That’s all I needed to hear. Thank you, Keenan.”
“Tell me about your big day,” he said, trying to get on board with the best feigned cheer he could muster. “Give me a dose of all the girliness.”
“Justice of the Peace, but it was nice. Vince’s family was there, and I had Jen. I wore a simple white dress, and Vince gave me this.” She opened the locket and showed him the photos.
“Justice of the Peace?” Keenan whined with dissatisfaction before he could stop himself. “I mean, that sounds great. I’m totally supportive. Lean closer. Let me see the pictures. Is that Papa D and Mama Antonia? Oh, and that’s the two of you?” He squinted and tilted his head to the side. “Huh. You really do look happy there.”
Fallyn looked on her brother in his orange jumpsuit and smiled. “I am.”
Twenty-Four.
Missing Something
Fallyn dropped Vince off at the industrial plant his family owned a part of and employed half the city with while she checked up on her own business. Jen’s arms flung around her with genuine glee for her best friend. “You’re back! And tan, too! How was it? Tell me absolutely everything.” Jen felt no guilt at leaving Hannah alone to man the front of the store. It was post-breakfast, pre-lunch, so the crowd was on its way to thinning. Jen dragged Fallyn to the kitchen and sat her on the stool as she waved Loretta over. “Girlfriend just got back from her honeymoon!” she informed the store manager.
Loretta looked taken aback as she congratulated her boss. “I didn’t even know you were engaged. Honeymoon? I thought you were just taking a step back from being here in person. You should’ve told me!”
Fallyn grinned, finally able to gush about the marvelous time she’d enjoyed with her husband. She displayed the ring to Loretta, who gasped and clutched her chest. “Child, since when are you allowed to have that big a diamond on a ring without a permit? It’s huge! And how many diamonds on the band there? So pretty!” She put her hand on her generous hip. “Okay, so who’s the lucky fellow?”
Guilt crept over Fallyn’s shoulder at telling her employee before her brothers. “You’ve met him. Vince D’Amato’s my husband now. I am taking a step back from being here all day every day, but for the last month I was on my honeymoon in Italy.”
“Vince?” Her eyes widened with caution and surprise. “I had no idea. Why’d you hide it from everyone?”
“My brothers still don’t know. I’m telling them tonight, so no cracking before then.” Fallyn inhaled the deep scent of butter that permeated her nose. The croissants were heavenly, and she longed for the comfort of her own recipes. “Are those fresh?”
Loretta took one off the pan and handed it to her boss. “Just made them. Natalie, the girl you hired to do the custom orders, is out on delivery. She’s been great. Gives me time to do things like make the best croissants in the city.”
Fallyn bit into the pastry and rolled her eyes at the goodness that melted on her tongue. The salty sweetness swirled around in her mouth as Jen and Loretta filled her in on everything she’d missed. Aside from the few ups and downs and ordering mishaps, the business was growing steadily. “You’re doing it, kid. You’ve got a business up and running, and you don’t have to kill yourself to keep it afloat.”
Fallyn beamed at Jen, who’d never doubted her, even when Fallyn had doubted herself. “Thanks. I…” Just as she was about to declare her loyalty to her friend, Fallyn’s stomach turned once again. She’d thrown up again that morning, and had thought that would be the end of the rancid chicken fiasco. “Be right back.” Fallyn barely made it to the bathroom before she emptied the meager contents of her stomach into the employee toilet, smacking the floor in frustration. She knew she had to go see her brothers in less than an hour for the meeting she’d called, and she didn’t want to be a sickly shade of green when she got there. She guessed they would probably blame Vince for her food poisoning, global warming and everything else they could.
Fallyn slumped against the wall as she wiped her mouth on a paper towel. The whole month she’d been on her honeymoon, she hadn’t so much as sneezed twice, but now that they were back, she couldn’t stop puking.
Clarity slowly swept over her mind, with panic chasing closely on its heels. She’d been in Italy for thirty days. She hadn’t missed anything while she’d been away. Anything, that is, except her period.
Twenty-Five.
The Intervention
Vince had tried
to talk Fallyn into letting him go with her to tell her brothers, but Fallyn was unbending. She had lucked out with Keenan, and only just. She knew that were he not surrounded by guards, the outcome might’ve been far different. But as she stood outside of her childhood home, she wished she hadn’t sent Vince away. There would be yelling, threats and things they would never be able to take back once shouted.
She wanted to run to her house and take a pregnancy test. She wanted to run to Vince and bury her nose in his neck so his intoxicating scent would steady her knocking knees. She wanted so many things, but a baby hadn’t been in the plan. She touched her stomach, telling herself not to get too worked up. Fallyn clutched the box of croissants she had made with Loretta that afternoon at the bakery and sucked in a deep breath, donning a bland smile so they didn’t sense her fear.
The men sitting and standing around hushed when she strolled into the house, glancing to her left to see half her brothers in the living room, and to the right to find the other half in the kitchen with her father. Wordlessly she moved to the dining room and set the peace offering down on the long table, taking a seat in her mother’s spot at the end as she waited for them to filter in and find their seats. She sat as if a ruler were taped to her back and kept her hands in her lap, unwilling to let them see her diamond-encrusted wedding band and surmise what she’d done before she could squeeze in a proper explanation.
She waited until her father took his seat at the head of the table before she spoke. “I’m here because I love you, and no matter what you’ve done or how you feel about my life, I will always love each of you.” She leveled her gaze to Killian’s. “When you bought that fast food chain that went under, we all stood by you and never said we told you so.” She locked eyes with Liam. “When you fell for that gold digging whore Tonya, we let you get it out of your system. I even went shopping with her to make her feel more part of the family. None of you made even the slightest effort to welcome Vince in. Carrigan, when you found out we were dating, you beat him so bad, he could hardly walk! I would never do that do you. I would never take the thing you loved and break it.”
Escaping: A Mafia Romance (The O'Keefe Family Collection #2) Page 12
